1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printer and a copying machine including a periodic replacement part detachably mounted at the main body thereof and a replacement part used therefor, in which a storage medium holding information on a replacement part is stored in the main body of the replacement part, and the information on the replacement part is used for controlling the main body of the apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in the image forming apparatus such as a printer and a copying machine as described above, there has been a general tendency to input information on a replacement part such as a toner cartridge to the main body of the apparatus and control the apparatus based on the input information in order to better the commercial value of the apparatus or improve the operability. For example, according to a practiced technique, in a network printer connected with a personal computer, information on the toner remaining amount of a toner cartridge, for example, is input to the printer main body. The input information is transmitted to a host computer, and the toner remaining amount is displayed at the monitor of a user interface for the host computer, so that the user can readily know the time to exchange the toner cartridge.
Also in the image forming apparatus such as a printer and a copying machine as described above, information on replacement parts such as a toner cartridge is input to the main body of the apparatus so that various replacement parts are identified from one another or kinds of toner in the toner cartridges are identified from one another.
As a method of inputting such information on a replacement part to the apparatus main body as described above and controlling the apparatus based on the input information, a replacement part such as a toner cartridge may be provided with a storage medium which can be used for information transmission to the main body of the apparatus.
A drawer connector is generally used as a conventional coupling device for transmitting information between the recording medium provided at a replacement part such as a toner cartridge as described above and the main body of the apparatus. This is because the drawer connector can be electrically connected in association with the mounting of the replacement part.
The conventional technique described above, however, suffers from the following disadvantages.
1) The drawer connector is connected in one direction and therefore the direction of connecting the replacement part is restricted. For example, a toner cartridge is typically inserted in the axial direction of the apparatus main body, then turned by a prescribed angle and set. However, it would not be possible to connect the drawer connector by such operation in view of the structure because the drawer connector is basically connected in one direction.
2) The drawer connector requires certain force for connection, which could impair the operability of the replacement part. The drawer connector should be operated with different kinds of force for different parts, and the user might prematurely judge that the mounting is complete when the replacement part is not completely mounted, in other words, a mounting fault could result.
3) If toner or the like sticks to the connecting portion of the drawer connector, a connection fault could be caused.
4) When there are multiple replacement parts in an image forming apparatus, a drawer connector for each part is necessary, which increases the size and cost of the device.
5) The recording medium provided at a replacement part to be connected using a drawer connector cannot be reduced in size as the result of using the drawer connector. The drawer connector used should have about six to ten pins, in other words the drawer connector is large in size, which increases the size and cost of replacement parts.
6) If a replacement part such as a toner cartridge is attached to a rotating body in a rotary developing device, the rotating part and the stationary part must be electrically connected, and therefore the reliability at the contact of the rotary part and the stationary part is low.
The present invention is therefore directed to a solution to the disadvantages associated with the conventional technique described above, and provides an image forming apparatus provided with information on a replacement part as an input to a main body thereof, and controlled based on the information, and a replacement part used therefor, in which the direction of connecting the replacement part is not restricted, the operability of the replacement part is not lowered, the size and cost of the apparatus or the replacement part are not increased and yet the information on the replacement part can surely be input to the apparatus main body.
More specifically, according to an aspect of the present invention, in an image forming apparatus having a periodic replacement part detachably mounted to a main body thereof, the replacement part includes a storage medium storing information on the replacement part. The information stored in the storage medium can at least be read on the main body side of the image forming apparatus by the communication portion communicating through a radio wave. In this structure, the storage medium provided at the replacement part and the apparatus main body side communicate by the communication portion communicating through a radio wave, so that the method of mounting the replacement part can be set as desired and the operability can be improved. Since a drawer connector for transmitting information is not necessary for the storage medium of the replacement part, the size of the storage medium can be reduced, so that the replacement part itself can be reduced in size.
Note that the replacement part is, for example, a toner cartridge, but the invention is not limited to this and is applicable to any replacement part used in an image forming apparatus such as a photoreceptor drum, a fuser, a transfer roll, an intermediate transfer body (such as a drum and a belt), and a waste toner box. The term xe2x80x9cperiodicxe2x80x9d in xe2x80x9cthe periodic replacement partxe2x80x9d means that the replacement is expected for the part, and the part actually does not have to be periodically replaced.
The information stored in the storage medium of the replacement part such as a toner cartridge storing toner is the used amount of the toner, the number of prints, information on the manufacture (such as the date of manufacture), user information, monitored information on the use environment such as temperature and humidity, and the number of reuse. Note, however, that the information stored in the storage medium of the replacement part is not limited to these kinds, and may include various kinds of information on the replacement part or the image forming apparatus using the replacement part.
Furthermore, an image forming apparatus having a periodic replacement part detachably mounted to a main body of the apparatus has multiple replacement parts, and a single communication portion is used as a communication portion on the main body side of the apparatus to storage media of the multiple replacement parts. In this structure, only the one communication portion on the apparatus main body side is necessary to the storage media of the multiple replacement parts, and therefore the size and cost of the apparatus can be reduced.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a periodic replacement part detachably mounted to an image forming apparatus is provided with a storage medium storing information on the replacement part. The information stored in the storage medium can at least be read on the main body side of the image forming apparatus by a communication portion communicating through a radio wave. In this structure, the storage medium provided at the replacement part and the image forming apparatus communicate by the communication portion communicating through a radio wave, and therefore the method of mounting the replacement part can be set as desired, so that the operability is improved. A drawer connector for information transmission is not necessary for the storage medium in the replacement part, and therefore the size of the storage medium can be reduced, so that the replacement part itself may be reduced in size.